Facebook’s Instagram Vine rival rumor gains traction

Facebook’s rumored Vine rival, allowing users to share brief video clips, looks even more likely to make its debut at the social network’s event in just a few hours time, with new leaks weighing in. The new service has been the handiwork of “months” of development, sources tell the WSJ, echoing suggestions of the same made on Monday.

Then, Facebook insiders countered rumors of a Facebook RSS reader to occupy the spot Google’s culled Reader being the main attraction, and said that instead Zuckerberg’s team was working on an update to Instagram. That fit in with earlier suggestions of video sharing being added to what, so far, has been a photo sharing tool.

According to the leaks, Facebook plans to support videos lasting roughly 5-10 seconds. It’s unclear whether any of Instagram’s well known filters and effects will be added, though it seems likely.

Vine met with a mixed reception when it initially launched, the Twitter-acquired sharing service allowing brief, looping clips to be filmed. However, despite the initial confusion, adoption of Vine took off, and in fact now the app is more popular in the App Store than Instagram is.

Facebook’s goal, presumably, is to reverse that, though it’s also possible that – like Twitter did with Vine – the company will release a standalone app rather than build the video system into Instagram. We’ll know for sure in just a few hours time; Facebook’s event kicks off at 1PM ET, and we’ll have all the news here on SlashGear.